Climate rule a campaign talking point

EPA’s proposed climate regulation quickly became campaign fodder Monday for some of the year’s most closely watched races, underscoring the peril for some Democratic candidates as the Obama administration takes another step in its so-called “War on Coal.”

Democrats facing tough races made varying calculations about whether to attack the rule — and if so, how harshly — or embrace it.

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Coal-state Democrats like West Virginia Rep. Nick Rahall and Senate candidates Alison Lundergan Grimes and Natalie Tennant lambasted the power plant rule, despite President Barack Obama’s plea Sunday for lawmakers from his party to champion the proposal.

“President Obama’s new EPA rule is more proof that Washington isn’t working for Kentucky,” said Grimes, who is running to unseat Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). She also issued a statement expressing “outrage” over the rule and announced a series of newspaper ads featuring a coal miner and the headline: “President Obama and Washington Don’t Get It.”

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) offered more mild criticism, saying it should be Congress’ job to take on climate change. “While it is important to reduce carbon in the atmosphere, this should not be achieved by EPA regulations,” said Landrieu, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

But Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.), whose state gets almost two-thirds of its electricity from coal, welcomed the rule as a “good start” that can build on conservation efforts there.

“Climate change is threatening Colorado’s special way of life,” Udall said.

Republicans, meanwhile, eagerly seized on the rule, spreading the message that a vote for Democrats is a vote for Obama’s agenda.

McConnell’s campaign sent out a rapid-fire statement tagging Grimes as having been “recruited” by Obama “who said he would ‘bankrupt’ the coal industry,” and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), “who said, ‘coal makes us sick.’”

Reid is a “special guest” at a breakfast fundraiser for Grimes this Thursday on Capitol Hill.

Grimes is also “being funded by liberals nationwide who know that a vote for her is a vote to ensure further implementation of their anti-coal agenda,” the statement from McConnell spokeswoman Allison Moore said.

McConnell said in a separate statement through his congressional leadership office that the EPA rule is “a dagger in the heart of the American middle class, and to representative Democracy itself.” He also tied it to Obama’s health care law, which is a more politically potent and divisive issue in most races.

“Already reeling from the painful effects of Obamacare, the American people are now being told they have to shoulder the burdens of the President’s latest ‘solution’ in the form of higher costs, fewer jobs, and a less reliable energy grid,” McConnell said. “The fact that the President plans to do all this through an end-run around Congress only highlights his contempt for the wishes of the public and a system of government that was devised precisely to restrain an action like today’s.”

McConnell said he will introduce legislation this week to try to stop the EPA rule, which probably won’t get a vote this year.

Rahall also went beyond just criticizing the rule, and said he’s working with Rep. David McKinley (R-W.Va.) on a bill to stop EPA’s proposal. The bill would also block the agency from issuing similar rules for at least five years without congressional approval.

“We will introduce bipartisan legislation that will prevent these disastrous new rules from wreaking havoc on our economy in West Virginia,” Rahall said in a statement. He added, “This new regulation threatens our economy and does so with an apparent disregard for the livelihoods of our coal miners and thousands of families throughout West Virginia.”

Tennant promised to “stand up to President Obama, [EPA Administrator] Gina McCarthy, and anyone else who tries to undermine our coal jobs.”

“Washington bureaucrats need to understand, these are not numbers on a balance sheet, they are real people with families to feed,” Tennant said, adding that she will “unveil a broad Coal and Energy Jobs Agenda” as part of a statewide energy tour starting Tuesday at a coal miner training facility.

The CoalBlue Project — a coalition of Democrats whose leadership includes Rahall and Illinois Rep. Bill Enyart — attacked EPA’s proposal as “flawed and imprudent.” Grimes and Tennant are both on the group’s steering committee.

But the National Republican Congressional Committee sent out a release saying Rahall “will fall in line along with his Democratic allies as he is in the political fight for his life this November.”

The NRCC sent out similar statements targeting 21 other House Democratic candidates in Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Arkansas, Maine, Iowa, Montana, Nevada and West Virginia.

Rahall is one of the NRCC’s prime targets this year, and Enyart may end up on its hit list too.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee announced it will launch robocalls Tuesday attacking Landrieu, Udall and Sens. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) over the rule.

The campaign of Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) also tried to tar his Democratic Senate opponent, Michelle Nunn, with Obama’s proposal.

“There’s no question these rules will force electricity rates to ‘skyrocket’ and kill American jobs,” Kingston’s campaign manager Chris Crawford said. “The question is whether Michelle Nunn will side with the Washington Liberal Elites bankrolling her campaign or working Georgia families already struggling under the Obama economy.”

While Democrats in coal, energy and anti-regulatory states are on the defensive, some in the party say the rule’s political risks are overstated and manageable.

“I don’t buy these doomsday scenarios some are trying to paint for Democrats,” former White House climate adviser Heather Zichal told POLITICO in a story posted Sunday. “I can’t find a single race where I think this proposal going forward is going to mean that the Democrat doesn’t get elected.”